Free Fall
by vacant houses
Summary: Without Raiden, there had been no Sunny. Just a number, no name, a cell, a computer and the whole internet before her. In which Sunny examines herself, her relationship to Raiden and the way they deal with life. Through dragons. (Sort of an xover but not really)


Look. All I can say is that I was offered an entire cake if I wrote a MGS/Flight Rising xover, which is probably one of the most random xover combinations anyone could possibly write. It didn't matter how it was written so long as it happened. This is more MGR with FR sorta thrown in the background, which is actually why I've put it in the general MGS category as opposed to the crossover section. But it happened, so I'm owed cake now.

* * *

**Free fall**

"It's a what?" Raiden peered down at Sunny, unsure if he'd heard her words correctly.

"A game," she repeated patiently, leaning an arm on the chair by her desk. "From what I've been able to determine, that's what we're dealing with."

The cyborg ninja examined the girl in front of him suspiciously. It didn't seem like this was on elaborate joke on Sunny's part, the Patriots weren't something that either of them took lightly. Not when such deep scars had been left on both their psyches. The might be gone but that didn't mean the many organisations put in place by them had disappeared overnight. Raiden had stumbled upon this latest one by accident. It had been an unpleasant encounter and he'd left a bloodbath behind in his wake after finding out that they were still conducting human experimentation. He'd managed to download a bunch of files out of the databanks before they'd pulled the plug and wiped the computers. Most of the files had been useless, laboratory supplies and shipping manifests though there had been one program he'd grabbed.

But-

"A game, seriously?" Raiden asked. He folded his arms and felt somewhat offended that this was what all his effort had come to. "That's what I managed to download out of those top secret files." A thought occurred to him. "Was it something to do with VR training? Brainwashing, maybe?"

Sunny bit the corner of her mouth but it wasn't enough to keep the smile from curling the edges of her lips. "As far as I can tell without installing it, it's just a regular computer game." She glanced back at the screen and the grin widened.

"About dragons."

Raiden furrowed his brow at this piece of news. "What."

"Yup," Sunny leaned over and hovered the mouse above the innocuous file sitting alone of the desktop. "I've isolated this computer, it doesn't have any access to the internet or anything other system. It should be good to-" she clicked down, "-go."

The cyborg's eyes widened in alarm. Computer game or not, nothing about a Patriot's program could be benign. "Wait, Sunny are you sure-?"

The young girl shot Raiden an insulted and offended expression. She _knew_ computers, this was her domain and Raiden had dared to doubt her. "Relax. There's nothing on this computer but the best anti-viral defences I can build. It doesn't even have wi-fi and the only thing plugged into it is the power. If there's anything harmful about this thing, the only bad thing that happens is that I lose a computer. I've got a heap of them, it doesn't really matter."

She turned her attention back to the screen, humming a tune to herself. Sunny patiently installed the game, acutely aware of the unhappy cyborg at her side gazing intently at the computer like it was a bomb waiting to go off. At her feet, Bladewolf was curled up but his head was turned in their direction and one eye was monitoring the proceedings. He didn't say anything, _he_ at least trusted in her abilities.

The progress bar finally filled up and Sunny could almost feel the flinch that went through Raiden. She sighed. Evidently, stumbling upon that remnant of the Patriots had done a number on him. It had to have brought back all sorts of unpleasant memories, she knew it did for her at the very least. For Sunny, it hadn't been so bad comparatively speaking, she'd been raised in that life and couldn't have known that there was anything more to the world. Raiden had been...well, it was a miracle really that he'd chosen to come back to the people that knew him. That he was standing by her side. Out of all of the people he could have gone to for help, he'd chosen her over his own family or the team he had back at Maverick.

Maybe it was because no one else understood the mark the Patriots could leave on a person's life quite as well as she could.

It had been hard, having him walk so easily both in and out of her life. He'd shattered her world and taken her out of her cell and put her out in the real world.

And then he'd left her with Snake and Otacon. They were dear to her, don't get her wrong, she loved them with every bit of her heart. They'd made a home on the Nomad and they'd tried and had made it work despite all odds but they hadn't been _Raiden_. Her existence had been built by his actions, before he came to rescue her, there had been no Sunny. Just a number, no name, a cell, a computer and the whole internet before her.

And yet, he kept vanishing from her life so easily, almost without a thought. Maybe he wasn't aware of how much she looked up to him, as unlikely as that seemed. You don't just give some a life without being aware of the impact you have on them. Well. The cyborg could sometimes be incredibly thickheaded. It wasn't impossible…

Anyway.

"I promise if it does something it's not supposed to, you can slice the computer up," Sunny said, watching him twitch in the corner of her eye. It was the correct thing to say, Raiden deflated and relaxed.

The game, Flight Rising, loaded up. Sunny inputted a username for herself and then was asked to design a starter dragon for herself. "Ooooh," she scrolled through the options eagerly, quickly picking a thin and slender breed. "So many choices...Raiden what colour should I make him?"

The cyborg gave her a startled look but drifted forward and peered at the screen. "Ummm…those are a lot of colours..." he fumbled to make a decision, he didn't exactly have an eye for colour or designing things. He picked something random. "Uh. Mulberry? With...stonewash."

His choice yielded a dragon with a violet and blue colouration. It was pretty, but Sunny quickly flicked through a few different combinations before returning to Raiden's choice and she quickly came to the conclusion that pretty was an easy achievement. Her jaw set as she frowned at the screen.

Raiden sensed her dissatisfaction though he was not aware of its cause. "Something wrong? I thought they looked good," he offered cautiously

She did appreciate the effort he was making. This had to be unknown territory he was navigating and a small part was gleeful that he was trying for her (even if it was because he was convinced that it was an elaborately disguised Patriot trap). Sunny didn't know much about how Raiden spent his free time but she was pretty certain it wasn't spent on video games.

Something told her he didn't need to when his life so closely resembled one already.

"They looked good," she acknowledged, flicking through the colours and mulling over her options. "They all look good in fact. That's the problem. I need something a little more...distinctive."

Raiden grimaced but didn't move from his position. "Gold?" he suggested.

Sunny flicked over to the colour, whilst it looked pretty, it wasn't any more outstanding than any of the others she'd chosen so far. Sunny went through a few more colours, with Raiden occasionally making suggestions until he got exasperated enough to ask: "Why does this even matter? It's just colour!"

"Because that determines what colour the offspring will be," Sunny answered without looking away from the screen as she scrolled through more options.

Raiden started at her side. "Wait, what? You'll be breeding the dragon?"

Sunny looked up at him. "Uh. Yeah. Why?"

The cyborg looked increasingly lost as he gestured vaguely at the screen. "I thought this was a fighting game or something. Don't dragons normally kill people?"

"This is a dragon _breeding _game," Sunny corrected. "You don't kill anything really. The objective is to-uh. Just breed your ideal dragon."

Raiden's face scrunched up in confusion. "What's the point?"

"Some games don't need to have a point," Sunny huffed. "I thought it was quite a nice idea, make the dragons you like, play some mini-games to earn gold, buy accessories for your dragons and then trade them with other players."

"There aren't any other players," the cyborg reminded her solemnly, alarmed by the prospect of installing the game onto another computer. "And how do you know all this stuff anyway?"

"I know that there won't be other players," the girl acknowledged, though she couldn't quite hide the wistfulness in her voice. Thankfully, Raiden was still preoccupied by the horror of multiple people playing the game. Never mind the Patriots had been directing human advancement for so damn long and had probably had a hand in every video game made ever. Hell, they'd even invented VR training. Comparatively speaking, Flight Rising was as tame as they could get. "There was an instruction manual along with the installer file. I read over it before I called you over. Anyway. It's been ten minutes and we still haven't picked a dragon."

The cybernetic ninja backed up and gestured to the screen, less suspicious now that he knew the game completely lacked any form of violence and wasn't some form of brainwashing tool. He hoped. "Just pick something."

Sunny looked mulishly at her current choice, a bright pink with forest green wings and deflated. Her first choice had to be something special. She played idly with the mouse for a bit as she pondered what she wanted, keeping watch over Raiden in the corner of her eye. Maybe she should ask Bladewolf for help, he'd remained silent throughout the entire discussion, probably because it was beneath him and she was still marvelling over the fact she'd gotten Raiden -of all people- to do this with her. The AI would undoubtedly have a unique perspective of the matter…

Raiden fidgeted uncomfortably beside her, his fake human hands picking away at his sleeve. Thinking about Bladewolf and watching Raiden brought another time to mind. A time when she'd shook the A.I's paw which he then refused to do the same with Raiden's metallic, clawed fingers.

Inspiration struck in a moment.

"I know!" Sunny chirped brightly and made the dragon silver and grey with a few yellow highlights. The game asked for a name and Sunny quickly typed one in and entered it before the cyborg had a chance to protest.

"You named him after me?" Raiden shot Sunny a confused look. At least, he didn't look annoyed, which was good because that hadn't exactly been a pleasant time in his life. His cyborg body then had been monstrous, a thing meant for nothing more than war and death and destruction and mentally, Raiden had been a total disaster. But that had never scared her, he'd been much the same way, only much less complete, when he'd given her life and a name. In some ways, it represented the duality of his nature, the fact that he'd kill and fight even when he was completely out control so that others could live.

Her hands faltered over the keyboard for only a moment as it occurred to her why it had been so easy to name the digital dragon as such.

He was going to leave again.

Raiden had only come back because he'd needed a computer expert to decipher the files he'd found. The afternoon had been pleasant, a good day really, one that she was going to look back and cherish because she had precious few memories with Raiden. And what better way to remember it than immortalize it with the dragon they'd designed together?

Sunny didn't vocalise any of these thoughts. Instead, she shrugged and shot him a cheeky grin. "Well, it's your game, after all," Sunny answered as she quickly clicked through a few more instructions. She was treading on dangerous grounds here and she knew it. Hopefully, Raiden wasn't thinking about what he'd done to accidentally acquire the computer game. Hopefully. Fortunately, the game provided her a distraction as it gave her another dragon, a creamy female with blue highlights. "Ooooh. Pretty. I have just the name for her too."

Quickly, before she could doubt herself and whether this was a sensible course of action, Sunny named the dragon Rose. The sharp intake of breath from behind her alarmed her though she didn't show it. At her feet, Bladewolf actually stirred and Sunny didn't want to know what sort of expression Raiden was wearing to evoke a response out of the recalcitrant AI. She ploughed on regardless, following the game's directions to set the two dragons up to breed, because as much as Sunny was immensely grateful to have Raiden here with her, there were people out there who missed him too.

Sunny took a deep breath before boldly turning round to face him, a calm smile plastered on her face. "I think I've done all I can do with them for now. Want to play some mini-games to earn me some gold?"

A variety of expressions flicked across Raiden's face, too quickly for her to decipher before he got himself under control. "Sure," he answered hoarsely, reaching past her for the keyboard. "Just for a little while."

Sunny hummed to herself as she pushed her chair back to make some room. There was no point offering her chair to him, it wouldn't be able to bear his weight. She didn't look at him directly but gazed past him at the screen. "Will you be staying for dinner?" she asked quietly.

For a long moment, Raiden said nothing. Then. "I'm sorry," he answered slowly and Sunny fought to keep down her disappointment. He was leaving, just as she knew he would. "But there's some place I need to be. A few people I haven't seen for a long time," Raiden sounded regretful and more than a little wistful.

Sunny pulled up her legs and settled down to watch him, a broad smile on her face. He was leaving her. But he was going home and that, she could recognise, was something that was long overdue.

* * *

The next time Raiden came round, there were a lot more computers set up nearby Sunny's originally isolated one. He was slightly apprehensive to see George and -_Bladewolf, of all people-_ as well as a few other employees at the computers, playing Flight Rising. The game, being Patriot made, still unnerved him, so he navigated away from them without a word and set off to find Sunny herself. Just about every person he passed in the building looked exhausted.

He found her in the hanger of all places, curled up by the latest spaceship she was working on. "Hey," he nudged her awake. "Late night?"

"Raiden!" Sunny gave an enormous smile at him and he felt a little guilty. It had been a long time since he'd seen her but there had been a lot of catching up to do and affairs to settle when he'd gone back home. "It's been a while!"

"Yeah," he acknowledged quietly before he crouched down and offered a hand to help her up. "How have you been?"

"Great!" she pulled herself up and wobbled a little after she let go of him before finding her balance. "Just a bit tired."

"So does everybody else that I've seen since I walked in on this place," Raiden observed with a bit of amusement though inwardly he was concerned.

Sunny's smile wavered slightly and she looked a bit embarrassed. "I think you were right," she said, pre-emptively.

Raiden frowned at her, unsure what they were talking about. "About what?"

"Flight Rising," she said, waving her hand vaguely. "About it being a brainwashing tool."

"WHAT?" the cyborg demanded in alarm, his hand dropped to his waist. His HF blade was concealed there by a camo system that rendered it invisible.

Sunny lurched forward and grabbed his arm. "Relax," she said. "Most of us have been playing it and none of us has developed the urge to go a murder spree. It's harmless."

"I thought you weren't going to install it on any more computers!"

"It's still on a internal network," Sunny assured him. "It's not going anywhere. I think the Patriots were developing it to simulate a virtual economy to study human behaviour. It's addictive and productivity has dropped around here by about 30% but aside from that, no other harm has been done. I think it was a little too addictive in fact, which was why they didn't release it. Can't have your workforce too distracted. Or maybe they were going to make it even more addictive, as a means of controlling the population."

"Sunny," Raiden gripped her arms carefully, not too tight to hurt her but so that she focused on him. "You're rambling. You've just accused the Patriots -of a bunch of - of wanting to control the world's population through a dragon breeding game. Do you have any idea how ridiculous that sounds?"

The girl blinked up at him owlishly. "Oh," she said in a small voice. "Ugh. You're right, I need some more sleep. Hey, Raiden? You want to see how many dragons I've bred from you?"

"Whut." That did not sound flattering, at all.

"They are sooo adorable," Sunny went on, ignoring the warning signs as she tugged him down a hallway. "I've traded a few of them away with George, he really likes them. He has a thing about naming them after the TMNT."

Raiden took a deep breath. "Sunny. You are going to delete that game or you will be losing a few computers," he warned her.

"Fine, fine," Sunny didn't protest that much. She'd been intending to shut the game down long ago. But it had never felt like the right moment to do it. Now however, it felt like it was time to it go. "Can I...can I keep just the program on my computer? I don't want to lose my dragons."

The cyborg stopped and gazed at her, lost in thought. She wondered what he was thinking about, whether he was remembering that day so long ago. Raiden reached down and took her other hand. "If you want to," he answered neutrally. Sunny wasn't sure why but something about that answer...just didn't feel right to her. Like it wasn't the resolution she'd been looking for.

Raiden gave her a small sad smile and added almost in after thought. "Sunny...you'll see me around. I'll be back, I mean it."

With that he strode forth and into the computer room to loom over George and demand what the hell he was doing while Sunny goggled after him in surprise and a great deal of relief. It hadn't just been Raiden she'd immortalized in digital form, there were others dear to her that she'd lost permanently. Maybe it was time to let go and stop obsessing over what she couldn't have and appreciate what she could.

It was with a lighter heart that she watched as Raiden and George settled into amicable bickering with Bladewolf making the occasional snide remark.

Today was a good day.

No, today, everything was just fine.


End file.
